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My HRT Music Streamer HD DAC is a game changer

I haven't started a thread this long for years, I think, so you have a hint right there. The truth is that I can't say enough good things about the new inexpensive DACs that seem to appear every week. I have only tried two -- the Audioquest Dragonfly is the other one -- but when I decided on the HRT Music Streamer HD, I knew I had hit gold for not much dough. I have been an audiophile since the early seventies, now retired, and my audio system is just appropriate for a small room, but forget the system --I don't remember enjoying music as much as I do now-- perhaps during my Thorens/ADC analog days, but that was a long time ago. A few years back I settled on a Squeezebox with Bolder power supply, but there is no comparison between it and the new DACs. My decision on the HRT HD was heavily due to its (true) balanced outputs, since my system is on the opposite side of the room from my computer. When the HRT HD is "correctly fettled," as Alan Sircom rightly puts it in Hi-Fi+ (meaning for me KingRex battery power and Elijah Audio Isolaate BL USB cable magic), it is awesome and then some. Ambience, natural timbre of instruments and voices, performers and instruments that have real body (not paper ships on a paper sea), huge soundstage, the feeling that you are there with the performers. Audio Nirvana!
vladimir

Showing 2 responses by mitch2

mitch2
4,168 posts
 
I posted about the Stereophile review in another DAC thread and my thoughts remain that, for the manufacturer, there is a lot riding on a review by one guy who listens to the gear in one system. If I didn't already know the quality of Kevin Halverson's work, and if I hadn't already seen the very positive reviews by Alan Sircom at HiFi+, Tom Gibbs at Positive Feedback, and Neil Gader at TAS, I may not have purchased the HRT HD after reading Art Dudley's negative portrayal of the high frequencies.

I just received the HRT HD and I will be trying it with the new ifi USB power unit based on Alan Sircom's helpful review comments. In his review, Tom Gibbs stated, "Music Streamer HD - through it, everything just sounds more like music," and I have always found that to be true of Kevin Halverson's digital offerings.
mitch2
4,168 posts
 
Dtc,no offense toward your post was intended. My issue is with this particular review. I have not yet heard the HRT HD, but I own one and I just received the ifi iUSB IsoPower system today. I am just getting my computer audio up and running and not quite ready to play music.

I do however have extensive experience with Kevin Halverson's digital players having owned the MUSE 9, 9 Sig, 10, and his last and best player, the Erato II, which in comparison made my Ayre C-5xeMP sound a touch sterile, and that's saying something because the Ayre is no slouch. Point being, the man knows digital and how to make products that make music. He has had like 4 chances to get his Streamers right and indications were that he was well on his way with the Streamer II+. I doubt he would all of a sudden come up with a "statement" design that would make ears bleed.

Art Dudley's Stereophile review pointed out the following on various tracks;
"sibilants were overcooked,"
"a bit too much bite,"
"vocal sibilants were a bit too much,"
"a bit too much wheeze,"
"a little too much scrape in the fiddle,"
"ride cymbal was just a shade more ringy than usual,"
"saxophone was slightly more piquent than real,"
"distracted by a bit of upper frequency hardness,"
"a little too much glare in the high notes,"
"too much bite in the violins," and
"still too much sibilance in the vocals - a disappointment."

Does the same issue really have to be repeated 11 times? Either the device totally sucks (something three other professional reviewers did not hear), or perhaps there was a gremlin in the system somewhere, a cable issue, a ground issue, or perhaps a cracked solder joint. I find it hard to believe that a second opinion was not obtained by a different Stereophile reviewer in a different system, and a second review sample was not requested of HRT and listened to, before the review was posted - a disappointment.
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